Classics and the Black Atlantic | JHI Working Group
Classics and the Black Atlantic is an interdisciplinary Working Group, sponsored by the Jackman Humanities Institute. Organized and led by Letticia Cosbert Miller, the group is composed of graduate students and faculty who conduct research or engage in other scholarly exchange in the fields of Classics and Black Studies.
This group will consider the contributions of Black artists, writers, and theorists to the field of Classics and its reception. Over the course of eight meetings, this working group will read and discuss texts which reimagine, revise, and/or reject Classical themes and tropes, placing Black contemporary culture in relationship with an ancient tradition from which it has long been excluded despite its many and sustained contributions. This working group builds on foundational works such as Emily Greenwood’s Afro-Greeks, and the edited volume African Athena: New Agendas, which examines the cultural encounters between Blackness and Classics from the sixteenth century onward. The title of this group is intended to evoke Paul Gilroy’s definition of Blackness, which is not only African but simultaneously American, Caribbean, British, and its intersections. Given these premises, this working group draws our scholarly attention beyond the often-dominating American context and towards the cultures and peoples which border the Atlantic Ocean, emphasizing the value of transnational networks and histories. Exploring the specific intersection of Classics and Black Atlantic culture brings a new perspective to enduring historical, methodological, and theoretical concerns across the humanities, such as anti and postcolonial strategies, legacies of imperialism and capitalism, and feminist intersectionality.
The Working Group meets monthly throughout the 2024-25 academic year, and welcomes new members at any time. To request to join the group, email the group lead linked in the list.
